Buenos Aires Subway

The Buenos Aires Subte, or subway, used to be the best deal in Argentina, offering what may have been the cheapest underground mass transit in the world. Last month, however, backpackers and budget travelers (not to mention Buenos Aires’ working poor) were saddened to learn that fares were rising from AR$1.10 (US$ 0.26) to AR$2.50 (US$0.58).

Fare prices had been frozen for decades, despite Argentina’s infamous inflation, thanks to massive subsidies doled out to the “private” company that runs Buenos Aires mass transit system, Metrovias. The Kirchner government is cutting off federal money in 2013, when responsibility for the Subte is handed over entirely to the city.